Not long ago, Internet marketers were pounding out content for their sites because the Google algorithm at the time loved “fresh content”.
At that time, Google believed that new content was relevant to a site’s authority.
So, everyone began churning out 500-word posts about everything they could imagine. All that mattered was that a continual stream of content was posted.
And you ended up with content like:
“Recipes for Taco Tuesday that you can enjoy while using our product.”
or
“10 ways to use our product that would make your neighbors jealous.”
You can see that this type of content may not be relevant unless that is, you are looking for taco recipes or to make your neighbors angry.
Soon, you’re used to continually putting out information on your site, relevant or not.
I’ve seen this during SEO overhauls on some of my clients’ sites: 1000 crazy blog posts about everything and nothing.
Google loves new content but has changed its algorithm based on user experience.
Your content must provide meaningful information, or Google will see it as useless fluff, hurting your rankings on the SERPs.
You can break bad habits and change how you create and post content.
Take a moment and examine why you are producing content for your site.
Are you producing content to meet management’s goals: five posts a week?
Are you creating content because you want your blog and social media to look full and vibrant?
There are better reasons than these.
Content should be made for one purpose only: to serve a goal.
Your content should always be connected to a marketing strategy.
Every piece you write, every graph you make, and every list you create must connect to your marketing plans.
This is how you gain customers, improve ranking, and become an online authority.
Understanding why content is created will help you create meaningful pieces. It will give your work purpose. There are four main reasons that content is created:
Before creating your piece, ask yourself if the content will enhance your marketing plans by meeting one of those four needs.
If you are working on content to help your rankings in search, you will write a completely different style of the piece than if you are trying to sell a product, engage the public, or even get links.
To generate high-quality content for search rankings, you need to start by researching the keywords used most by the public.
These high-demand words are what the public wants to know.
The next thing you will need to do is create content that incorporates these keywords into the piece and provides an exceptional experience to the user.
Detailed content that enhances the user experience will help your content rank higher than your competitors.
For example, if you promote “Things to do in Daytona Beach,” you can create a simple list of things you think people may enjoy.
However, your competitors have already done that. The only difference is they will use their business or service near the top of their list.
So take your list to the next level.
Create a piece for “Things to do in Daytona Beach” and make it more user-friendly.
You get the point.
Make your information detailed and engaging. Go to the next level of information and answer their questions.
A family will want to know where the family-oriented things are to do at the beach, while couples may want different activities. When you can answer all the questions in one piece, you have got amazing content.
It takes time, research, and a little creativity to create content like this. But it’s worth it, because Google will reward you with rankings and visitors.
Links are crucial to your search engine rankings. Google will only see your site or content as an authority with enough visible links to credible sources. This is why concentrating on link building is often the priority of content creation.
If you are looking for links for your site, you need to create data-driven content that adds real value to a topic.
Your piece must attract the attention of leading publications, journalists, and other authority sites.
Use a few of these suggestions in your content, just one:
You get the picture. Share interesting stuff that people like to reference from their content.
The most common type of content is to inform the public about your brand and introduce your products or services to generate interest.
You’re trying to invoke a response from your visitor, changing them from a visitor to a customer.
Brand informational content should answer these questions:
You should include many different types of content that will meet the needs of your potential clients. As long as that content answers their questions, your content will serve as a meaningful experience for your visitors.
An educational piece of content can be the first step in the sales process.
It usually starts with identifying a specific problem your target market is facing.
People love to complain online, so it’s easy to find topics on blog comments, Quora, and social media. You can ask your customers, too – this will also help build trust.
Once you know the problems, you set out to find solutions and publish them on your website with clear and compelling headlines.
You cannot ignore social media.
However, regular content is simply not going to work on social media.
When posting to social media, you have about five seconds to gain their attention, or they will scroll on. You need to create content that pops and that is short.
A long piece about the attributes of using environmentally friendly resources to create your product will not fly on social media.
A quick list of unique ways, and I mean quick, to use your product will catch their attention.
The purpose of social media is to catch their attention, not to get them deeply involved.
If they love your little pieces on social media, they will become engaged with your product and come back to learn more.
You need to embrace social media content; that is the truth, but make sure that these posts will eventually lead your readers to your main site content.
The one thing you must remember when setting goals for your content is that all content is different and will achieve different goals.
It may be fun to think that every piece you create will meet all five needs, educate, engage, search rankings, and link building, but it simply does not happen.
Create content that is meant to meet one or two of those needs. It might accidentally hit one or two of the others.
For example, a piece you write to rank a keyword might also be link worthy if you include some research data.
An engaging social post may include an interesting backstory that helps build brand awareness.
Google is all about user experience.
You need to take the time to create quality, meaningful content. And if this means that you are posting less than two pieces a week, good.
The number of posts no longer counts. It is all about quality.
So, take your time.
Research what is out there and make it better. Find a reason for people to stop and read your content and even pass the link around.
If you create content with a purpose, the sales, the links, and the authority will follow.
Thanks for reading this post!
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